By Al Blanton | Image by Ryan McGill
A few Saturdays ago, I took my five-year-old son hunting for the first time. He’d been bugging me for the last couple of years, and I guess the time was finally right.
Prior to leaving on our little excursion into the “forest,” as he said, I told him he could not shoot but only sit with me while I hunted. It didn’t matter. I could have told him we were going to the outer reaches of Ulan Bator, and he would have still been excited to go.
As we were loading our gear, he peppered me with a million questions: Why do we have to wear this camo? Can I use your binoculars? What is this spray for?
But just as we were leaving, he turned to me and said sweetly, “Daddy, I hope you catch a deer.”
Boy, did my heart swell! Indeed, moments like these make me proud to be the father of such a wonderful little boy.
Then, for whatever reason, a story popped into my head. It was the story of Abraham and Isaac from the Bible. Like me and my son, Abraham and Isaac were loading up to go on a little excursion of their own. The difference was that Abraham was not going hunting; he was planning on sacrificing his son.
Make no mistake, Abraham was not a madman or sociopath; he was being obedient to what God had told him to do in Genesis 22:2: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Can you possibly imagine?
As I thought about that story and looked at my only son, my beloved son, my innocent son, I wondered how much anguish Abraham must have felt as he set out to obey God’s order.
Not only that, but how that command must have been somewhat confusing for several reasons. First, God promised Abraham (then Abram) that he would have many descendants (Gen. 15:5). If Abraham killed his only son, that lineage—and promise—would be eliminated. Secondly, murder was expressly forbidden (see Genesis 9:4-6). Third, the Lord said he would establish a covenant with Isaac, and the covenant would apply to Isaac’s descendants (Gen.17).
Was the Lord somehow contradicting himself?
Regardless of whether it made sense to him, Abraham obeyed and set out “early in the morning.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I doubt I would have been that eager to get going. In fact, there would have probably been great hesitation on my part.
Anyway, Abraham takes a couple of servants with him on the journey to a place called Moriah, which, interestingly enough, is about a three-day journey away—enough for him to thoroughly contemplate if he was willing to go through with it. On the third day of the journey, Abraham says something interesting to his servants. He tells them, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there, and we will worship and return to you.”
Notice the word, “we.”
We will return.
Abraham was planning on coming back with Isaac fully intact. To me, this adds another layer onto Abraham’s faith. Not only was he obedient in doing what the Lord asked, but he trusted that the Lord would somehow provide a way out and that he and the boy would return unharmed.
That would be incredible enough, but consider the New Testament parallel in Hebrews 11, which states that when Abraham considered how God might bring the boy back to camp, he contemplated that the Lord might even raise Isaac from the dead.
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” – Hebrews 11:17-19.
If you don’t think this is big faith, ask yourself when was the last time you considered God might resurrect someone from the dead who had passed away.
Like a beautiful tapestry, the story of Abraham and Isaac weaves quite the intriguing image: the beloved son, the innocent sacrifice, the willing sacrifice, the carrying of the wood, the male sheep caught in a thicket (like a crown of thorns), the three-day journey to Moriah, and the sacrifice occurring at an elevated place.
Sound familiar?
A few days ago, I read a portion of a book called I See Jesus to my kids that told the story of Isaac and Abraham. Although the story was difficult to explain to my two young children, writer Nancy Guthrie helped me to sum up the purpose of Abraham’s trial:
“God told Abraham to offer Isaac, the son that he loved, as a sacrifice for sin. Isaac carried the wood on which he would be sacrificed. But God provided a ram to be sacrificed in Isaac’s place so that Isaac could live. In the shadow of Isaac I see Jesus, the beloved son of the Father. Jesus carried the wood on which he would be sacrificed. God provided Jesus to be a sacrifice in our place so that we can live.”
The heart-wrenching brutality of Abraham’s test was finalized when God sent his son to be sacrificed on the cross.
May we always rejoice when we consider Jesus’ obedience, and the ramifications for us as he uttered the word tetelestai.
It is finished. WL
